This Week in History

Does this week seem like any other week? Well, think again. Check out some of the most important political events that happened this week in history.

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March 18

1942: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order authorizing the War Relocation Authority, which established a government agency to handle the internment of Japanese-Americans. Milton S. Eisenhower served as its director.

1837: Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, is born in Caldwell, N.J.

1959:President Eisenhower signed the Hawaii Admission Act of 1959 into law. The bill dissolved the Territory of Hawaii and established the State of Hawaii as the 50th state.

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March 19

2003: President George W. Bush addressed the nation to announce that Operation Iraqi Freedom had begun. The president said the purpose of the invasion was to depose Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and also to eliminate the country's ability to develop weapons of mass destruction.

1931: The State Legislature of Nevada voted to legalize gambling in an attempt to lift the Sagebrush State out of the hard times of the Great Depression.

1852: The controversial anti-slavery novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," written by Harriet Beecher Stowe was published. The novel sold 300,000 copies within the first three months of publication.

1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson orders the use of federal authority to call up the Alabama National Guard to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers.

2008: Vice-President Dick Cheney met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on a visit to Kabul. It was during these talks that Cheney called upon other NATO countries for a greater commitment to Afghanistan's security.

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March 21

1965: Martin Luther King Jr. led more than 3,000 demonstrators to the start of the historic civil rights march from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery, the state capitol.

1939: One of America's most performed songs, "God Bless America," was recorded by Kate Smith for Victor Records. The song was originally written by Irving Berlin in 1918.

1980: In response to the Soviets invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, U.S. President Jimmy Carter informed about 150 American athletes and coaches that the United States would be boycotting the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow for the first time.

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March 22

1933: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a law levying a federal tax on all alcoholic beverages containing 3.2 percent alcohol. This law was known as the Beer and Wine Revenue Act. Its purpose was to raise revenue for the federal government and it allowed for the regulation of sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages in individual states.

1765: The Stamp Act was enacted on the American colonies by Britain. The law levied a tax on all material printed for commercial and legal use in the colonies as a means to raise money to defend American territories gained from the French in the Seven Years' War.